I received the opportunity to shoot my first wedding. At first when I was asked to do this wedding I said "NO! Absolutely not". Mal's sister Mindy wanted me to shoot her engagements, bridals, and her wedding! *GULP*!!!! After speaking to Mindy and her fiance Stephen I warmed up to the idea of photographing their wedding. I have always been a firm believer of having a professional shoot your wedding regardless of the circumstances. But I started to think, "How does a professional become a professional?" After much pondering and beating my head against the wall I came to the conclusion that the only way I was going to better my photography was through persistence and experience. So after much thought and a ton of research I decided that this was something that I could do. I figured that what I already knew, and what I learned through my research, that I could give them something that they would like and that I could be proud of.

These are some of the engagements and bridals that I took. The wedding is tomorrow, I will post some of those when I am done. These however turned out pretty good, I am pleased with the way they ended up and love most of them. The most important thing though is that Mindy & Stephen (and maybe more importantly Barb) love the photos.





































































I shot the engagements and the bridals in RAW+jpeg and I am so glad that I did. I learned that RAW is amazing and that you have the ability to fix,change, and better the photos that you took. I am still trying to decide if RAW is good for photography because I think that it gives some photographers the excuse of talking sub-par pictures and fixing them later. At the same time I think it gives the other photographer the chance to show the viewer the scene as they saw it, which often does not translate to what the camera takes.

So I just got back from the eye doctor and it is official, I have to get glasses. I have mixed feelings about this, on one hand it sucks cause Mallory is going to touch them all the time (which is rude, honestly, who touches someone's glasses?) but on the other hand it should help with my headaches and more importantly it should help with my photography. I am trying to decide which glasses I should get, these are my two choices:



I like these ones but I haven't seen them in person yet so I am patiently waiting for the doctor to get them in.







I really like these ones but I am worried that they are to sporty and not professional enough.

So that is where I am at with the glasses, I hope that I can find ones that I like and that look good on me. I will post pictures when I decide which ones I decide on.

I am starting this blog to help document my journey through life, education, and my photography ups and downs. If nothing else this blog is mainly for me help ease the frustrations that I have been going through lately.

The last year for me has been crazy, there have been many triumphs and shortcomings. During this time I have learned how to be myself without others tellig me what I need to be, and the most important lesson I have learned is to live life with no regrets. Thankfuly I have followed this principle very well so far. Over the past 10 months in particular I have discovered how to live life in a way that makes me happy but more importantly I have learned to be happy while making others happy as well. I don't want it to seem like I'm claiming sainthood here, just that I have learned what should have been learned a long time ago, better late than never though right? It is obvious what, rather who, has helped me realize these important life lessons and I am eternaly grateful for that.

I hope that this blog can help me better understand me, but at the same time I hope it can entertain the masses. Afterall I am pretty easy to laugh at!!!